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Pacific Business Centers Case Study

Case Studies

Mitel saves Pacific Business Centers $365,000 annually in labor costs

On-demand office environment

Pacific Business Centers (PBC) provides just-in-time, just-in-place workplace support solutions. Clients have access to furnished offices and an extensive array of services under a pay-per-use hosted model.

Increasing efficiencies with UC

To orchestrate a higher level of cohesive business communications across the company, Pacific Business Centers wanted to replace legacy PBX systems with a single Voice over IP (VoIP) platform.

“Our challenge was to cost-effectively bring the power of UC and personalized call answering to our premise-based and mobile clients. We wanted to achieve staffing efficiencies as well as technology enhancements. Connecting all of our locations together using the Mitel single image system just made so much sense,” explains Scott Chambers, chief operating officer at Pacific Business Centers. “We had multiple receptionists at each location to answer calls and wanted to route all of the call traffic to our centralized Pacific Answering Center.”

PBC had PBX systems from Mitel and Nortel across the organization. “The idea behind centralizing phone answering for all locations was to improve the quality of service, and decrease labor costs. Two important selection criteria for our new solution were ease of use and scalability. To be blunt, the thickness of their user manual and the complexity and length of their initial training process helped us rule out some of the vendors on our initial list very quickly,” he continues.

The selection and evaluation process included an impressive lineup, including Nortel, Mitel, Cisco, Asterisk by Digium, and Mitel. “We initially decided to go with an Asterisk system, because open source systems have always appealed to us culturally and we found a credible provider who understood our operating challenges intimately. When PBC began to experience significant growth, we realized the Asterisk system wouldn’t take us where we needed to go, and decided to revisit the proprietary but more established systems,” explains Chambers.

PBC chose a Mitel Unified Communications (UC) Solution. “We looked at the ease of use and scalability of Mitel, and the Mitel TCO Tool that showed the cost of ownership. We needed to equip 10 locations, and with Mitel we could connect all locations through one system. Our telephony system is mission critical for us. We are not just supporting our own company, we are also supporting the needs of our clients,” says Chambers.

Mitel’s UC solution ensures success for PBC’s virtual offerings

PBC implemented its Mitel UC System, along with Mitel IP Phones and more than 1,200 licenses to manage business communications across the entire enterprise. “Communications is a huge part of the product we offer our clients. Gaining unified messaging and a cohesive platform is essential to ensuring the success of our virtual offerings, too,” says Chambers.

At the heart of the Mitel solution is a fully distributed and scalable architecture designed to simplify growth and ensure uptime. Mitel core software provides all the essential capabilities, including voice routing, automated attendant, unified messaging, call accounting and reporting, robust workgroup routing, and other advanced telephony features. Mitel Director adds comprehensive visibility into the system, and SIP trunking from EtherSpeak and StarView Solutions to connect the UC System faster and less expensively than legacy PRI trunks.

“THE SHORETEL PLATFORM HAS ENABLED US TO DEPLOY ONE SINGLE PLATFORM THROUGHOUT OUR ORGANIZATION AND CONNECT ALL OUR LOCATIONS SEAMLESSLY. EMBRACING THE SHORETEL PLATFORM HAS BEEN A GAME-CHANGING EVENT FOR US AND FOR OTHERS THAT ARE EAGER TO EMULATE OUR LEAD. WE LOOK FORWARD TO ADDING NEW CUSTOMERS AND BENEFITING FURTHER FROM THIS IMPLEMENTATION.”

Scott Chambers, COO
Pacific Business Centers

Mitel supports open standards, including open APIs, for greater flexibility to integrate leading business process applications with business communications systems. PBC employs the Mitel Salesforce.com Call Center Adapter for each user desktop, enabling out-of-the-box integration to unite and automate call routing, monitor and control calls, and interface with Salesforce.com via a softphone—all within one application.

The Mitel system also integrates with a frontend console product that PBC is using, which is specific to the real estate industry and runs on a Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI). Pacific Business Centers has also integrated Microsoft Outlook with the Mitel system.

Reduced labor costs lead to significant cost savings

Since its Mitel deployment, PBC has realized dramatic cost savings and productivity, as well as the ability to expand its customer offerings. Because the company now runs on a single VoIP platform, all calls can be routed through the Pacific Answering Center. “We went from needing 20 receptionists to only needing seven. The cost savings on those salaries equal $365,000 annually. And we take advantage of Mitel’s built-in least cost call routing for reducing our communication costs. With the labor savings and efficiencies alone, the system paid for itself in two years,” details Chambers.

New business opportunities, such as the activation of a Cloud Virtual Office Service, have enabled PBC to cater to the growing population of mobile workers that is not tied to any of its current locations. Chambers mentions that the company is continuing to scale Mitel and plans to resell the Salesforce.com Call Center Adapter as a value-added service.

“The Mitel platform has enabled us to deploy one single platform throughout our organization and connect all our locations seamlessly. Embracing the Mitel platform has been a game-changing event for us and for others that are eager to emulate our lead. We look forward to adding new customers and benefiting further from this implementation,” concludes Chambers.

“OUR CHALLENGE WAS TO COST-EFFECTIVELY BRING THE POWER OF UC AND PERSONALIZED CALL ANSWERING TO OUR PREMISE-BASED AND MOBILE CLIENTS. WE WANTED TO ACHIEVE STAFFING EFFICIENCIES AS WELL AS TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS. CONNECTING ALL OF OUR LOCATIONS TOGETHER USING THE SHORETEL SINGLE IMAGE SYSTEM JUST MADE SO MUCH SENSE.”